HMCS Columbia (DDE 260)

HMCS Columbia at Rotterdam, 10 May 1965
History
Canada
Name	Columbia
Namesake	Columbia River
Builder	Burrard Dry Dock, North Vancouver
Laid down	11 June 1952
Launched	1 November 1956
Commissioned	7 November 1959
Decommissioned	18 February 1974
Homeport	CFB Esquimalt
Identification	DDE 260
Motto	Floreat Columbia ubique ("May Columbia flourish everywhere")[1]
Honours and awards	Belgian Coast, 1914–15, Atlantic 1940–44[1]
Fate	Sunk as artificial reef off British Columbia in 1996.
Badge	Gules, a bend wavy argent charged with two like cotises azure, and over all in the center a dogwood flower proper[1]
General characteristics
Class and type	Restigouche-class destroyer
Displacement	2,800 t (2,800 long tons; 3,100 short tons) (deep load)
Length	366 ft (111.6 m)
Beam	42 ft (12.8 m)
Draught	14 ft (4.3 m)
Propulsion	2-shaft English-Electric geared steam turbines 2 x Babcock & Wilcox boilers 30,000 shp (22,000 kW)
Speed	28 knots (52 km/h; 32 mph)
Range	4,750 nautical miles (8,800 km; 5,470 mi) at 14 knots (26 km/h; 16 mph)
Complement	214
Sensors and processing systems	1 × SPS-12 air search radar 1 × SPS-10B surface search radar 1 × Sperry Mk.2 navigation radar 1 × SQS-501 high frequency bottom profiler sonar 1 × SQS-502 high frequency mortar control sonar 1 × SQS-503 hull mounted active search sonar 1 × SQS-10 hull mounted active search sonar 1 × Mk.69 gunnery control system with SPG-48 director forward 1 × GUNAR Mk.64 GFCS with on-mount SPG-48 director aft
Electronic warfare & decoys	1 × DAU HF/DF (high frequency direction finder)
Armament	1 × 3-inch/70 Mk.6 Vickers twin mount forward 1 × 3-inch/50 Mk.33 FMC twin mount aft 2 × Mk NC 10 Limbo ASW mortars 2 × single Mk.2 "K-gun" launchers with homing torpedoes 1 × 103 mm Bofors illumination rocket launchers

HMCS Columbia was a Restigouche-class destroyer that served in the Royal Canadian Navy and later the Canadian Forces from 1959 to 1974. Columbia was the seventh and final ship in her class and is the second Canadian naval unit to carry the name HMCS Columbia. Following her service, she was kept at Esquimalt in an altered condition, no longer capable of sailing. During the summer of 1974 she along with her sister ship HMCS Chaudiere served as the base of operations for the Esquimalt Sea Cadet Camp while being docked at the DND jetty in Colwood. This location was across the harbour from the main site of CFB Esquimalt. Columbia was sold for use as an artificial reef and sunk off the coast of British Columbia in 1996.